I have a modeless informational dialog box defined at the beginning of a SKILL script, but its contents don't display until the script finishes.

How do you get a modeless dialog box contents to display while a SKILL script is running?

procedure(myproc()

   prog((myvars)

     hiDisplayAppDBox()    ; opens blank dialog box - no dboxText contents show until script completes!

     ....rest of SKILL code in script...launches child processes

   );prog

);proc

As the stakes for winning server segment market share grow ever higher an increasing number of companies are seeking to grasp the latest Holy Grail of multi-chip coherence. The approach promises to better enable applications such as machine learning...(read more)

Here we conclude the blog series and highlight the results of Mediatek 's use of Cadence Perspec™ System Verifier for their SoC level verification. In case you missed it, Part 1 of the blog is here , and Part 2 of the blog is here . One of their key...(read more)

The Cadence® Connections® Verification Program brings together a worldwide network of services, training, and IP development experts that support Cadence verification solutions. The program members help customer accelerate the adoption of new...(read more)

There’s nothing like the heat of a DAC demo to stress new technology and the engineers behind it! Such was the case at DAC 2018 at the new locale of Moscone Center West, San Francisco. Cadence and AMIQ were two of several vendors who announced ...(read more)

Learn about the challenges and solutions for integrating and verification PCIe(r) Gen4 into an Arm-Based Server SoC. Listen to this relatively short webinar by Arm and Cadence, as they describe the collaboration and results, including methodology and...(read more)

Cadence continues to be a leader in SoC verification and has expanded our industry investment in Accellera portable stimulus language standardization. Some customers have expressed reservations that portable stimulus requires the effort of learn...(read more)

I'm trying to generate IBIS models for the parts that I'm designing.  I'm designing using CADENCE Virtuoso.  

I'm wondering if there is a tutorial for generating IBIS models in CADENCE Virtuoso.   Please pardon me if my question is broad.      

Hi, I want to add values to components in my SiP design such as 1nF or 15nH. There is already in existence a COMP_VALUE property reserved for this as shown during BOM generation. This property is not visible under the Edit/Properties dialog for component or symbol find filters. We have already created user properties called COMP_MFG and COMP_MFG_PN that it editable at a component level. When we try to add COMP_VALUE it is reported as a reserved name in Cadence but this name is not listed in the properties dialog. Is there a way to turn on the visibility and editablility of this or other hidden reserved Cadence property names? How can I assign a string value to the COMP_VALUE property?

Thanks

https://community.cadence.com/cadence_blogs_8/b/breakfast-bytes/posts/cowos-info

I came across cadence old article that discussing about TSMC advance packaging technology such as InFO & CoWoS. However, I couldn’t find information such as what I/O interface standard is required to realize this multi-chip SiP. For example, Intel using their proprietary AIB interface for EMIB solution.

Besides, any idea if inFO also able to supports multi-chip integration for older node process to new node process such as 40-nm to 16-nm?

Have you ever manufactured a printed circuit board (PCB) without analyzing all the routed signal traces? Most designers will say “yes, all the time.” Trace widths and spacing are set by constraints,...

[[ Click on the title to access the full blog on the Cadence Community site. ]]

Today, we are living in the era where whatever we think of as an idea is not far from being implemented…thanks to machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) entering into the...

[[ Click on the title to access the full blog on the Cadence Community site. ]]

Cadence ® Spectre ® AMS Designer is a high-performance mixed-signal simulation system. The ability to use multiple engines, and drive from a variety of platforms enables you to "rev...

[[ Click on the title to access the full blog on the Cadence Community site. ]]

The Linley Processor Conference always opens with a keynote by Linley Gwenapp giving an overview of processors in whatever is the hottest area. Most of the other presentations during the conference...

[[ Click on the title to access the full blog on the Cadence Community site. ]]

I recently attended a webinar presented by Wally Rhines about his new book, Predicting Semiconductor Business Trends After Moore's Law . Wally was the CEO of Mentor, as you probably know. Now he...

[[ Click on the title to access the full blog on the Cadence Community site. ]]

Complexity is driving the urgency for advanced artificial intelligence systems more than ever—and that means someone has to supply the tools to create those systems. Cadence is up to the task: we’ve been expanding our AI offerings. If you haven’t already seen what Cadence can do for your AI needs, or if you’re not quite up-to-date on this whole AI boom, let this presentation given by K.T. Moore at the Cadence Theater at DAC bring you up to speed.

The technology behind AI isn’t as new as you’d think—the principles that govern how AI learns have been in development since 1959, when Arthur Samuel defined the concept of “machine learning.” At the time, there was nothing even resembling the necessary compute power to put Samuel’s concepts into practice—but now we can. AI designs are huge, and they’re massively parallel—simulating them on older computers and simulators would have taken ages; never mind how long it would take to do some by-hand measure like they had to do in the '60s.

But with advancements in server technology and the parallelization technology in products like Xcelium Parallel Logic Simulator and JasperGold smart technology, plus hardware-based engines like the Palladium and Protium platforms, verifying AI designs is not only possible—it’s easy.  But, read on, its not just about simulation technology.

AI tech is flooding the industry. It’s applicable to almost every vertical—cloud computing can use AI to intelligently manage a user’s required resources, consumer electronics are using it to tailor a user experience based on a whole host of collected data, automotive companies want to use AI to drive cars, healthcare to assist in diagnoses given a set of symptoms and a database of other, similar patients—and that’s saying nothing of the multitude of industrial applications. AI is also useful in the creation of developers’ tools themselves. Part of what’s causing the semiconductor industry boom is just this—an exploding interest in AI chips. And with 5G technology imminent, and with the looming billion-gate plus sizes of the SoCs that implement 5G, AI-assisted developers' tools might need to become the norm, not an outlier.

So: in all of this, where is Cadence?

Cadence is focusing its efforts on two areas, dubbed “machine learning inside” and “machine learning outside.” ML inside in the digital design flow refers to improving PPA, faster engines, and better testing and diagnostics. None of this physically affects how you use a tool, but it makes using that tool a much better experience. ML outside talks about the design flow in general, working toward an automated design flow, as well as productivity improvements across the flow. These things do change how you use a tool, but don’t worry, it’s all for the better.

Additionally, Cadence is working to improve design enablement; that is, hardware and software co-design. Smart Genus and Innovus solutions make designing your SoC easier than ever—using the full flow can result in up to a 21% PPA gain.

If you’re looking specifically for IP to enable AI on your SoC, the Tensilica DNA 100 processor has you covered, too. It’s great for companies designing edge or AI chips, offers great compression rates and efficient power usage, and has 4.7X the performance of other AI SoC IP on similar array sizes.

Cadence has you covered no matter where you’re going in this new world of AI systems—with our AI-enabled tools, IP,  and our strong partner ecosystem, you can be at ease knowing you’ll be supported no matter how complex your needs are.

When you design a rigid-flex board, the focus is, of course, on the bend. Your design might be bend to install (stable flexion) - it will be bent only a few times while installing. Or it might be dynamic - it will be bent regularly. It's important to...(read more)

All PCB designers know the importance of proper power delivery for successful board design. Integrated circuits need the power to turn on, and ICs with marginal power delivery will not operate reliably. Since power planes can...(read more)

What is a Power Distribution Network (PDN) after all but resistance, inductance, and capacitance in the PCB and components? And, of course, it is there to deliver the right current and voltage to each component on your PCB. But is that all? Are there oth...(read more)

Have you ever manufactured a printed circuit board (PCB) without analyzing all the routed signal traces? Most designers will say “yes, all the time.” Trace widths and spacing are set by constraints, and many designers simply don’t h...(read more)

All engineers can enhance their mixed-signal low-power structural verification productivity by learning while doing with a PIEA RAK (Power Intent Export Assistant Rapid Adoption Kit). They can verify the mixed-signal chip by a generating macromodel for their analog block automatically, and run it through Conformal Low Power (CLP) to perform a low power structural check.  

The power structure integrity of a mixed-signal, low-power block is verified via Conformal Low Power integrated into the Virtuoso Schematic Editor Power Intent Export Assistant (VSE-PIEA). Here is the flow.

Applying the flow iteratively from lower to higher levels can verify the power structure.

Cadence customers can learn more in a Rapid Adoption Kit (RAK) titled IC 6.1.5 Virtuoso Schematic Editor XL PIEA, Conformal Low Power: Mixed-Signal Low Power Structural Verification.

• To read the overview presentation, click on following link: PIEA Overview
• To download this PIEA RAK click on following link: PIEA RAK Download

The RAK includes Rapid Adoption Kit with demo design (instructions are provided on how to setup the user environment). It Introduces the Power Intent Export Assistant (PIEA) feature that has been implemented in the Virtuoso IC615 release.  The power intent extracted is then verified by calling Conformal Low Power (CLP) inside the Virtuoso environment.

• Last Update: 11/15/2012.
• Validated with IC 6.1.5 and CLP 11.1

The RAK uses a sample test case to go through PIEA + CLP flow as follows:

• Setup for PIEA
• Perform power intent extraction
• CPF Import: It is recommended to Import macro CPF, as oppose to designing CPF for sub-blocks. If you choose to import design CPF files please make sure the design CPF file has power domain information for all the top level boundary ports
• Generate macro CPF and design CPF
• Perform low power verification by running CLP

It is also recommended to go through older RAKs as prerequisites.

• Conformal Low Power, RTL Compiler and Incisive: Low Power Verification for Beginners
• Conformal Low Power: CPF Macro Models
• Conformal Low Power and RTL Compiler: Low Power Verification for Advanced Users

To access all these RAKs, visit our RAK Home Page to access Synthesis, Test and Verification flow

Note: To access above docs, use your Cadence credentials to logon to the Cadence Online Support (COS) web site. Cadence Online Support website https://support.cadence.com/ is your 24/7 partner for getting help and resolving issues related to Cadence software. If you are signed up for e-mail notifications, you can receive new solutions, Application Notes (Technical Papers), Videos, Manuals, and more.

You can send us your feedback by adding a comment below or using the feedback box on Cadence Online Support.

Sumeet Aggarwal

I noticed some very interesting news last week, widely reported in the technical press, and you can find the source press release here. In a nutshell, the Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium (EEMBC) has formed a group to look at benchmarks for ultra low power microcontrollers. Initially chaired by Horst Diewald, chief architect of MSP430^TM microcontrollers at Texas Instruments, the group's line-up is an impressive "who's who" of the microcontroller space, including Analog Devices, ARM, Atmel, Cypress, Energy Micro, Freescale, Fujitsu, Microchip, Renesas, Silicon Labs, STMicro, and TI.

As the press release explains, unlike usual processor benchmark suites which focus on performance, the ULP benchmark will focus on measuring the energy consumed by microcontrollers running various computational workloads over an extended time period. The benchmarking methodology will allow the microcontrollers to enter into their idle or sleep modes during the majority of time when they are not executing code, thereby simulating a real-world environment where products must support battery life measured in months, years, and even decades.

Processor performance benchmarks seem to be as widely criticized as EPA fuel consumption figures for cars - and the criticism is somewhat related. There is a suspicion that manufacturers can tune the performance for better test results, rather than better real-world performance. On the face of it, the task to produce meaningful ultra low power benchmarks seems even more fraught with difficulties. For a start, there is a vast range of possible energy profiles - different ways that computing is spread over time - and a plethora of low power design techniques available to optimize the system for the set of profiles that particular embedded system is likely to experience. Furthermore, you could argue that, compared with performance in a computer system, energy consumption in an ultra low power embedded system has less to do with the controller itself and more to do with other parts of the system like the memories and mixed-signal real-world interfaces.

EEMBC cites that common methods to gauge energy efficiency are lacking in growth applications such as portable medical devices, security systems, building automation, smart metering, and also applications using energy harvesting devices. At Cadence, we are seeing huge growth in these areas which, along with intelligence being introduced into all kinds of previously "dumb" appliances, is becoming known as the "Internet of Things." Despite the difficulties, with which the parties involved are all deeply familiar, I applaud this initiative. While it may be difficult to get to apples-to-apples comparisons for energy consumption in these applications, most of the time today we don't even know where the grocery store is. If the EEMBC effort at least gets us to the produce department, we're going to be better off.

Pete Hardee 

DAC is right around the corner! On the demo floor at Cadence® Booth #2214, we will demonstrate how to use the Cadence mixed-signal and low-power solution to design, verify, and implement a microcontroller-based mixed-signal design. The demo design architecture is very similar to practical designs of many applications like power management ICs, automotive controllers, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Cadene tools demonstrated in this design include Virtuoso® Schematic Editor, Virtuoso Analog Design Environment, Virtuoso AMS Designer, Virtuoso Schematic Model Generator, Virtuoso Power Intent Assistant, Incisive® Enterprise Simulator with DMS option, Virtuoso Digital Implementation, Virtuoso Layout Suite, Encounter® RTL Compiler, Encounter Test, and Conformal Low Power. An extended version of this demo will also be shown at the ARM® Connected Community Pavilion Booth #921.

For additional highlights on Cadence mixed-signal and low-power solutions, stop by our booth for:

• The popular book, Mixed-signal Methodology Guide, which will be on sale during DAC week!
• A sneak preview of the eBook version of the Mixed-signal Methodology Guide
• Customer presentations at the Cadence DAC Theater
  • 9am, Tuesday, June 4  ARM  Low-Power Verification of A15 Hard Macro Using CLP 
  • 10:30am, Tuesday, June 4  Silicon Labs  Power Mode Verification in Mixed-Signal Chip
  • 12:00pm, Tuesday, June 4  IBM  An Interoperable Flow with Unified OA and QRC Technology Files
  • 9am, Wednesday, June 5  Marvell  Low-Power Verification Using CLP
  • 4pm, Wednesday, June 5  Texas Instruments  An Inter-Operable Flow with Unified OA and QRC Technology Files
• Partner presentations at the Cadence DAC Theater
  • 10am, Monday, June 3  X-Fab  Rapid Adoption of Advanced Cadence Design Flows Using X-FAB's AMS Reference Kit
  • 3:30pm, Monday, June 3  TSMC TSMC Custom Reference Flow for 20nm -  Cadence Track
  • 9:30am,Tuesday, June 4  TowerJazz   Substrate Noise Isolation Extraction/Model Using Cadence Analog Flow
  • 12:30pm, Wednesday, June 5  GLOBALFOUNDRIES  20nm/14nm Analog/Mixed-signal Flow
  • 2:30pm, Wednesday, June 5  ARM  Cortex®-M0 and Cortex-M0+: Tiny, Easy, and Energy-efficient Processors for Mixed-signal Applications
• Technology sessions at suites
  • 10am, Monday, June 3    Low-power Verification of Mixed-signal Designs
  • 2pm, Monday, June 3      Advanced Implementation Techniques for Mixed-signal Designs
  • 2pm, Monday, June 3      LP Simulation: Are You Really Done?
  • 4pm, Monday, June 3      Power Format Update: Latest on CPF and IEEE 1801  
  • 11am, Wednesday, June 5   Mixed-signal Verification
  • 11am, Wednesday, June 5   LP Simulation: Are You Really Done?
  • 4pm, Wednesday, June 5   Successful RTL-to-GDSII Low-Power Design (FULL)
  • 5pm, Wednesday, June 5   Custom/AMS Design at Advanced Nodes

We will also have three presentations at the Si2 booth (#1427):

• 10:30am, Monday, June 3   An Interoperable Implementation Solution for Mixed-signal Design
• 11:30am, Tuesday, June 4   Low-power Verification for Mixed-signal Designs Using CPF
• 10:30am, Wednesday, June 5   System-level Low-power Verification Using Palladium

We have a great program at DAC. Click the link for complete Cadence DAC Theater and Technology Sessions. Look forward to seeing you at DAC!     

Hello, i saw that MAESTRO is a plotting addon is it a part of ADE EXPLORER?

i cant see the relation between the two.i started to read manual and regarding MAESTRO i only see code.

is there some simple examples?
Thanks.

Hello, i have a realy mistick thing going with copying libraries in cadence virtuoso,

When i copy straight forwart the whole library it gives me a warning that accsess was denied,but when i go into the library and copy it as a single file, then it goes fine.

another problem is it doesnt show in the massage console  ALL the files which could not be copied.(which is the much bigger problem,becuase i would have to pass threw all the subdirectories to verify if all files are there)

Is there a way to see which files wasnt able to be copied?

Thanks. 

Hi,
I am new to the circuit design and troubleshooting. My project is to design a trans-impedance amplifier using Cadence that can amplify a signal coming from a photodiode. I started out with the regulated cascode configuration as shown in the circuit below. I look at the frequency response using AC simulation and it looks like a high pass (/net 5). The results doesn ot show any gain (transient response), or expected low-pass roll-off in the AC response.

First thing, I looked into the operating regions of the MOSFETs and adjusted the input dc voltage of the Vsin to 0.5 to make sure that the T0, T1 mosfets are in saturation(checked this with the print->dc operating points). Beyond this point, I am not sure on how to proceed and interpret the results to make changes. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

-Rakesh.

Hello , i am trying to extract netlist from a circuit  in assembler

I have found the manual shown bellow , however there is no such option in tools in assembler.

how do i view the NETLIST of this circuit?

Thanks.

ASSEMBLER VIEW menu

Hello, I have a problem with a certain type of transistor,my hyrarchy has a lot components an sub components and visually inspecting them is very hard.

is there a way like in other cadence layout viewer tools , to enter the name of the component or a NET somewhere and it will focus on it visualy or give the hyrarchy path to it?

Thanks.

Hello

The document I referenced is https://filebox.ece.vt.edu/~symort/rfworkshop/Mixer_workshop_instruction.pdf. (This is cadence workshop document)

While following the pxf simulation in the above article, the results are different and I have a question.

My result picture is shown below.

<my result error>

<document result>

<my direct plot>

<document direct plot>

The difference with the documentation is that in the direct plot screen after the pxf simulation,

1.output harmonics-> input sideband

2.Frequency axis: out-> frequency axis: absin

3.The results for port0 (RF port) are also different (see photo below).

4.The frequency values in the box are different.

My screen shows 5G, 10G, 1K ~ 10M, but the document is the same as 1K ~ 10M.

Ask for a solution. Thank you.

Hi, all

Recently, I meet the simulation error as the picture shows when I simulate my circuit with transient.  how can I solve this problem?

thank you~

Hello, i am trying to produce a gain circles on a simple transistor as shown bellow.

i have defined the range from 1 til 30 dB and i dont get any circle just dots in infinity?

Where did i go wrong?
Thanks.

Hello, i have built a matching network of 13dB gain and  NF as shown bellow step by step.(including all the plots and matlab )

its just not working at all,i am doing it exacly by the thoery

taking a point inside the circle-> converting its gamma to Z_source->converting gamma_s into gamma_L with the formulla bellow as shown in the matlab->converting the gamma_L into Z_L-> building the matching network for conjugate of Z_L and Z_c.Its just not working.

where did i got  wrong?

Thanks.

gamma_s=75.8966*exp(deg2rad(280.88)*i);
z_s=gamma2z(gamma_s,50);
s11=0.99875-0.03202*i
s12=721.33*10^(-6)+8.622*10^(-3)*i
s21=-188.37*10^(-3)+30.611*10^(-3)*i
s22=875.51*10^(-3)-100.72*10^(-3)*i
gamma_L=conj((s22+(s12*s21*gamma_s)/(1-s11*gamma_s)))
z_L=gamma2z(gamma_L,50)

Hi,

i am designing a broadband (100 MHz -6 GHz BW) receiver chain for  radar/rcs measurement tester. i will put Low noise amplifier after antenna input followed by mixed(10 MHz IF BW and digitizer.

I am facing problem regarding LAN. bandwidth of LAN is  approx 6 GHz(100 MHz-6GHz), gain 25-35 dB, with NF less than 2. I am uncertain about noise floor at the output of LNA.  I dont know exact SNR at the input of LNA but it shall be good.System operation will be on stepped CW waveform so receiver input signal will sweep over the BW and some step size.

so LNA output r noise floor will be? i assume, we can neglect thr role of input noise because it will be lesser than internal noise of LNA.

will it be LNA internal noise (Thermal noise due to BW) only ?

will it be LNA internal noise (Thermal noise due to BW)  + LAN Gain ? -78+25 =-53 dB? internal noise shall be lesser because NF is less than 3 . 

i have practically observed that that output noise floor is much lesser then even thermal noise( over LNA BW). i have gone through some tutorial where  formula says( internal noise+input noise)+gain. in  my case input noise shall be much less than theoretical internal noise. 

Thanks

Hello, There is a manual in matlab of matching LNA  shown in the link bellow.

In it as shown in the plot bellow they mention input and output circle plots.

Is there such option of input and output circle in cadence virtuoso?

https://www.mathworks.com/help/rf/examples/designing-matching-networks-part-1-networks-with-an-lna-and-lumped-elements.html

Hi Guys,

Anyone know equivalent skill for create detail.

Eugene

Other tools allow a sanity check of placement density vs available board space.  There is an older post "Skill code to evaluate all components area (Accumulative Place bound area)"  (9 years ago) that has a couple of examples that no longer work or expired.

This would be useful to provide feedback to schismatic and project managers regarding the component density on the PCB and how it will affect the routing abilities.  Thermal considerations can be evaluated as well 

Has anyone attempted this or still being done externally in spread sheets?

Hello, i am a student who is studying Allegro tool with SKILL.

I have a question about SKILL axlSegDelayAndZ0. The reference says this function "returns the delay and impedance of a cline segment."

I want to know how many components does this tool consider when calculating timing delay from the length. 

How steep is input signal's rise transition? Is rise transition shape isosceles trapezoid or differential increasing shape?

Also, if it is a multi fan-out, the rise transition time will be different net by net. How can this tool can calculate in this case?

I want to hear answers about these questions.

Thank you for reading this long boring questions, and i will be waiting for answers.

Hi,

I have to Take DRC report by cadence skill code I don't know the command to get Element 1 and Element 2 Report any one please help me out.

For a project, we depend on capturing warnings. This works fine in Virtuoso but behaves differently in Allegro.

In our observations

Virtuoso:

>>> warn("Hello")

*WARNING* Hello

Allegro:

>>> warn("Hello")

*WARNING* Hello

But when we capture the warning:

Virtuoso:

>>> warn("Hello") getWarn()

"Hello"

Allegro:

>>> warn("Hello") getWarn()

"*WARNING* Hello"

This is a Problem for because we put an empty String in the warn and depend on the fact that no Warning results in an empty String but on Allegro the output always begins with *WARNING*

Is there a way to make the behavior consistent in both versions?

Hello All,

May I know if there is a way to breakup a selected clinesegment into a few clinesegments by just using SKILL code

Thanks All

This is the 17th installment of The Rationalist, my column for the Times of India.

One of my favourite English words comes from chess. If it is your turn to move, but any move you make makes your position worse, you are in ‘Zugzwang’. Narendra Modi was in zugzwang after the Pulwama attacks a few days ago—as any Indian prime minister in his place would have been.

An Indian PM, after an attack for which Pakistan is held responsible, has only unsavoury choices in front of him. He is pulled in two opposite directions. One, strategy dictates that he must not escalate. Two, politics dictates that he must.

Let’s unpack that. First, consider the strategic imperatives. Ever since both India and Pakistan became nuclear powers, a conventional war has become next to impossible because of the threat of a nuclear war. If India escalates beyond a point, Pakistan might bring their nuclear weapons into play. Even a limited nuclear war could cause millions of casualties and devastate our economy. Thus, no matter what the provocation, India needs to calibrate its response so that the Pakistan doesn’t take it all the way.

It’s impossible to predict what actions Pakistan might view as sufficient provocation, so India has tended to play it safe. Don’t capture territory, don’t attack military assets, don’t kill civilians. In other words, surgical strikes on alleged terrorist camps is the most we can do.

Given that Pakistan knows that it is irrational for India to react, and our leaders tend to be rational, they can ‘bleed us with a thousand cuts’, as their doctrine states, with impunity. Both in 2001, when our parliament was attacked and the BJP’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee was PM, and in 2008, when Mumbai was attacked and the Congress’s Manmohan Singh was PM, our leaders considered all the options on the table—but were forced to do nothing.

But is doing nothing an option in an election year?

Leave strategy aside and turn to politics. India has been attacked. Forty soldiers have been killed, and the nation is traumatised and baying for blood. It is now politically impossible to not retaliate—especially for a PM who has criticized his predecessor for being weak, and portrayed himself as a 56-inch-chested man of action.

I have no doubt that Modi is a rational man, and knows the possible consequences of escalation. But he also knows the possible consequences of not escalating—he could dilute his brand and lose the elections. Thus, he is forced to act. And after he acts, his Pakistan counterpart will face the same domestic pressure to retaliate, and will have to attack back. And so on till my home in Versova is swallowed up by a nuclear crater, right?

Well, not exactly. There is a way to resolve this paradox. India and Pakistan can both escalate, not via military actions, but via optics.

Modi and Imran Khan, who you’d expect to feel like the loneliest men on earth right now, can find sweet company in each other. Their incentives are aligned. Neither man wants this to turn into a full-fledged war. Both men want to appear macho in front of their domestic constituencies. Both men are masters at building narratives, and have a pliant media that will help them.

Thus, India can carry out a surgical strike and claim it destroyed a camp, killed terrorists, and forced Pakistan to return a braveheart prisoner of war. Pakistan can say India merely destroyed two trees plus a rock, and claim the high moral ground by returning the prisoner after giving him good masala tea. A benign military equilibrium is maintained, and both men come out looking like strong leaders: a win-win game for the PMs that avoids a lose-lose game for their nations. They can give themselves a high-five in private when they meet next, and Imran can whisper to Modi, “You’re a good spinner, bro.”

There is one problem here, though: what if the optics don’t work?

If Modi feels that his public is too sceptical and he needs to do more, he might feel forced to resort to actual military escalation. The fog of politics might obscure the possible consequences. If the resultant Indian military action causes serious damage, Pakistan will have to respond in kind. In the chain of events that then begins, with body bags piling up, neither man may be able to back down. They could end up as prisoners of circumstance—and so could we.

***

Also check out:

Why Modi Must Learn to Play the Game of Chicken With Pakistan—Amit Varma
The Two Pakistans—Episode 79 of The Seen and the Unseen
India in the Nuclear Age—Episode 80 of The Seen and the Unseen

The India Uncut Blog © 2010 Amit Varma. All rights reserved.
Follow me on Twitter.

This is the 21st installment of The Rationalist, my column for the Times of India.

When all political parties agree on something, you know you might have a problem. Giriraj Singh, a minister in Narendra Modi’s new cabinet, tweeted this week that our population control law should become a “movement.” This is something that would find bipartisan support – we are taught from school onwards that India’s population is a big problem, and we need to control it.

This is wrong. Contrary to popular belief, our population is not a problem. It is our greatest strength.

The notion that we should worry about a growing population is an intuitive one. The world has limited resources. People keep increasing. Something’s gotta give.

Robert Malthus made just this point in his 1798 book, An Essay on the Principle of Population. He was worried that our population would grow exponentially while resources would grow arithmetically. As more people entered the workforce, wages would fall and goods would become scarce. Calamity was inevitable.

Malthus’s rationale was so influential that this mode of thinking was soon called ‘Malthusian.’ (It is a pejorative today.) A 20th-century follower of his, Harrison Brown, came up with one of my favourite images on this subject, arguing that a growing population would lead to the earth being “covered completely and to a considerable depth with a writhing mass of human beings, much as a dead cow is covered with a pulsating mass of maggots.”

Another Malthusian, Paul Ehrlich, published a book called The Population Bomb in 1968, which began with the stirring lines, “The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.” Ehrlich was, as you’d guess, a big supporter of India’s coercive family planning programs. ““I don’t see,” he wrote, “how India could possibly feed two hundred million more people by 1980.”

None of these fears have come true. A 2007 study by Nicholas Eberstadt called ‘Too Many People?’ found no correlation between population density and poverty. The greater the density of people, the more you’d expect them to fight for resources – and yet, Monaco, which has 40 times the population density of Bangladesh, is doing well for itself. So is Bahrain, which has three times the population density of India.

Not only does population not cause poverty, it makes us more prosperous. The economist Julian Simon pointed out in a 1981 book that through history, whenever there has been a spurt in population, it has coincided with a spurt in productivity. Such as, for example, between Malthus’s time and now. There were around a billion people on earth in 1798, and there are around 7.7 billion today. As you read these words, consider that you are better off than the richest person on the planet then.

Why is this? The answer lies in the title of Simon’s book: The Ultimate Resource. When we speak of resources, we forget that human beings are the finest resource of all. There is no limit to our ingenuity. And we interact with each other in positive-sum ways – every voluntary interactions leaves both people better off, and the amount of value in the world goes up. This is why we want to be part of economic networks that are as large, and as dense, as possible. This is why most people migrate to cities rather than away from them – and why cities are so much richer than towns or villages.

If Malthusians were right, essential commodities like wheat, maize and rice would become relatively scarcer over time, and thus more expensive – but they have actually become much cheaper in real terms. This is thanks to the productivity and creativity of humans, who, in Eberstadt’s words, are “in practice always renewable and in theory entirely inexhaustible.”

The error made by Malthus, Brown and Ehrlich is the same error that our politicians make today, and not just in the context of population: zero-sum thinking. If our population grows and resources stays the same, of course there will be scarcity. But this is never the case. All we need to do to learn this lesson is look at our cities!

This mistaken thinking has had savage humanitarian consequences in India. Think of the unborn millions over the decades because of our brutal family planning policies. How many Tendulkars, Rahmans and Satyajit Rays have we lost? Think of the immoral coercion still carried out on poor people across the country. And finally, think of the condescension of our politicians, asserting that people are India’s problem – but always other people, never themselves.

This arrogance is India’s greatest problem, not our people.

The India Uncut Blog © 2010 Amit Varma. All rights reserved.
Follow me on Twitter.

This is the 24th installment of The Rationalist, my column for the Times of India.

Back in the last decade, I was a cricket journalist for a few years. Then, around 12 years ago, I quit. I was jaded as hell. Every game seemed like déjà vu, nothing new, just another round on the treadmill. Although I would remember her fondly, I thought me and cricket were done.

And then I fell in love again. Cricket has changed in the last few years in glorious ways. There have been new ways of thinking about the game. There have been new ways of playing the game. Every season, new kinds of drama form, new nuances spring up into sight. This is true even of what had once seemed the dullest form of the game, one-day cricket. We are entering into a brave new world, and the team leading us there is England. No matter what happens in the World Cup final today – a single game involves a huge amount of luck – this England side are extraordinary. They are the bridge between eras, leading us into a Golden Age of Cricket.

I know that sounds hyperbolic, so let me stun you further by saying that I give the IPL credit for this. And now, having woken up you up with such a jolt on this lovely Sunday morning, let me explain.

Twenty20 cricket changed the game in two fundamental ways. Both ended up changing one-day cricket. The first was strategy.

When the first T20 games took place, teams applied an ODI template to innings-building: pinch-hit, build, slog. But this was not an optimal approach. In ODIs, teams have 11 players over 50 overs. In T20s, they have 11 players over 20 overs. The equation between resources and constraints is different. This means that the cost of a wicket goes down, and the cost of a dot ball goes up. Critically, it means that the value of aggression rises. A team need not follow the ODI template. In some instances, attacking for all 20 overs – or as I call it, ‘frontloading’ – may be optimal.

West Indies won the T20 World Cup in 2016 by doing just this, and England played similarly. And some sides began to realise was that they had been underestimating the value of aggression in one-day cricket as well.

The second fundamental way in which T20 cricket changed cricket was in terms of skills. The IPL and other leagues brought big money into the game. This changed incentives for budding cricketers. Relatively few people break into Test or ODI cricket, and play for their countries. A much wider pool can aspire to play T20 cricket – which also provides much more money. So it makes sense to spend the hundreds of hours you are in the nets honing T20 skills rather than Test match skills. Go to any nets practice, and you will find many more kids practising innovative aggressive strokes than playing the forward defensive.

As a result, batsmen today have a wider array of attacking strokes than earlier generations. Because every run counts more in T20 cricket, the standard of fielding has also shot up. And bowlers have also reacted to this by expanding their arsenal of tricks. Everyone has had to lift their game.

In one-day cricket, thus, two things have happened. One, there is better strategic understanding about the value of aggression. Two, batsmen are better equipped to act on the aggressive imperative. The game has continued to evolve.

Bowlers have reacted to this with greater aggression on their part, and this ongoing dialogue has been fascinating. The cricket writer Gideon Haigh once told me on my podcast that the 2015 World Cup featured a battle between T20 batting and Test match bowling.

This England team is the high watermark so far. Their aggression does not come from slogging. They bat with a combination of intent and skills that allows them to coast at 6-an-over, without needing to take too many risks. In normal conditions, thus, they can coast to 300 – any hitting they do beyond that is the bonus that takes them to 350 or 400. It’s a whole new level, illustrated by the fact that at one point a few days ago, they had seven consecutive scores of 300 to their name. Look at their scores over the last few years, in fact, and it is clear that this is the greatest batting side in the history of one-day cricket – by a margin.

There have been stumbles in this World Cup, but in the bigger picture, those are outliers. If England have a bad day in the final and New Zealand play their A-game, England might even lose today. But if Captain Morgan’s men play their A-game, they will coast to victory. New Zealand does not have those gears. No other team in the world does – for now.

But one day, they will all have to learn to play like this.

The India Uncut Blog © 2010 Amit Varma. All rights reserved.
Follow me on Twitter.

Hi,

I've vhdl block containing fsm . IMC not able to auto extract the state machine coded like this:

There is a intermediate state state_mux  between next_state & state.

Pls. help in guiding IMC how to recognize this FSM coding style? 

Snipped of the fsm code:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

               type state_type is (ST_IDLE, ST_ADDRESS, ST_ACK_ADDRESS, ST_READ, ST_ACK_READ, ST_WRITE, ST_ACK_WRITE, ST_IDLE_BYTE);

               signal state : state_type;

               signal state_mux : state_type;

               signal next_state : state_type;

process(state_mux, start)

         begin

               next_state <= state_mux;

               next_count <= (others => '0');

           case (state_mux) is

                 when ST_IDLE => 

                            if(start = '1') then

                                 next_state <= ST_ADDRESS;

                              end if;

            when ST_ADDRESS =>

   …………….

          when others => null;

         end case;

     end process;

process(scl_clk_n, active_rstn)

               begin

                      if(active_rstn = '0') then

                           state <= ST_IDLE after delay_f;

                  elsif(scl_clk_n'event and scl_clk_n = '1') then

                             state <= next_state after delay_f;

                            end if;

end process;

process(state, start)

               begin

                     state_mux <= state;

               if(start = '1') then

                       state_mux <= ST_IDLE;

                              end if;

               end process;

Thanks

Raghu

I'm sending encrypted HDL to a customer who will use Cadence IES for simulation and was wondering how I should go about the encryption.

Does IES support the IEEE's P1735 and if so, where can I find Cadence's public key for performing the encryption?

Or is there an alternative solution that I can use for encryption?

Hi All,

I want to capture the transition values of certain nodes in a design (i.e. a digital multiplier built with standard cells) and I use probe -screen command to dump the nodal values in text format. Since I only need to capture these values in the ideal situation, I use -nospecify switch with the xrun command :

xrun -clean R16FA_2009.v R4BE_Test.v tb_stop16.v -v stdlib_verilog_models-sdf30.v -access +rwc -mess -timescale 1ns/1ps -nospecify -gui &

and the probe command goes like this : 

probe -screen tb_stop16.mul16.test.L1 -redirect probe1.txt -format "%T L1 Value: %b"  //Here L1 is an array of wires

Although I expect a single transition at a given time instance, I see multiple transitions occurring in the dumped probe1.txt file. i.e. 

Time: 300 PS : 48'bxx0xx0xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx0xx0xx11x
Time: 300 PS : 48'b000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000110
Time: 4 NS : 48'b001000000000000000000000000000000000000000000100
Time: 4 NS : 48'b011000000010111111111001000000110011011001010101
Time: 8 NS : 48'b010000000010111111111001000000110011011001010101
Time: 8 NS : 48'b110100101100000110000111100001010010111001011100
Time: 12 NS : 48'b010000110011100010001110011100010101010001010101
Time: 16 NS : 48'b000010000010000000000000000010000000010010010100
Time: 20 NS : 48'b000011000010000000000000000010000000010010010100
Time: 20 NS : 48'b000001001001001001011011000010001010011010010100

From the waveform, it appears that only the second value (bold)  of the time instance is correct. Since the simulation is without annotated delays, there are no intermediate transitions in the waveform. How could this be possible ?

Thanks in advance

Hello folks,

Greetings.

One of my customer claims that he is using Cadence IES version 18.09.011 with Vivado 2019.2. The version of IES that we officially support with Vivado 2019.2 is 15.20.073. Though the tool is forward compatible, I am not sure what are the versions of IES that are released after 15.20.073. Could you please give me a list of the versions of Cadence IES released after 15.20.073 and which is the latest version as of now ?

Best regards,

Chinmay

Hi Team,

I would like to download "Incisive Metrics Center User Guide", I could not find in the cadence/support/manuals. Can you please provide me the link or path to download the same ? I am doing functional coverage with IMC. 

Thank You,

Mahesh

I'm in the process of weeding a regression test list. I have a coverage database from the full regression list and would like to diff it with the coverage database from the new reduced regression test list. If possible I would than like to trace back any buckets covered with the full list, but not with the partial list, into the original tests that covered them.

Is that possible using IMC? if not, is it possible to do from Specman itself?

(Note that we're not using vManager)

Thanks,

Avidan

When I run simulation with irun, it may use may license features. How can I know which feature(s) a product use? I get below message in cdnshelp:

-------------------------------------------------------------

Which Products Are in the License File?

One Cadence product can require more than one license (FEATURE). The product to feature mapping in the license file lists the licenses each product needs.

For example, if the license file lists these features for the NC-VHDL Simulator:

Product Name: Cadence(R) NC-VHDL Simulator
#
Type: Floating Exp Date: 31-jul-2006 Qty: 1
#
Feature: NC_VHDL_Simulator [Version: 9999.999]
#
Feature: Affirma_sim_analysis_env [Version: 9999.999]

-------------------------------------------------------------------

But, in my license file, I can't find such info. There is only "FEATURE" lines in my license file. How can I get product to feature mapping info?

Thanks!